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1) Is CBS mathematically
challenged? Following a June 14 CBS Evening News story on President
Clinton's University of California at San Diego speech on race, anchor
Paula Zahn asserted:

"In his speech the
President reminded the nation that 50 years from now there will be no
majority race. Right now whites make up more than 73 percent of the
population, but next century that number will shrink to 50 percent
while all minority groups will continue to grow."

Maybe in 60 years. As she
spoke, viewers saw two tables. First, one for the breakdown in 1997:
Hispanic: 10.2%
Asian: 2.8%
White: 73.6%
Black: 12%

2) Too much government, as in
enforcing school monopolies and discriminatory policies like
affirmative action, isn't the problem that America must address. To
former NBC News reporter and Morris Udall aide Ken Bode, more
government and spending is solution to racial problems. Referring to
the White House, on Friday's (June 13) Washington Week in Review on
PBS, moderator Bode relayed:

"When you ask them what
the President's really done on race they talk about the Memphis
speech, they talk about the church burning speech, they talk about the
'mend it but don't end it' and what have you, but really, if you look
at the welfare bill he signed and you look at the budget deal right
now which gives you very little opportunity for much money for jobs in
the inner-cities and things like that, or job training and what have
you, it reminds me of an old Texas saying that 'it's all hat and no
cattle.' You know. That there really isn't much possible that's going
to be done by the government, it's all Clinton."

3) The networks appear
incapable of producing a balanced story on the reduction in the number
of blacks and Hispanics entering California's public university system
after Prop. 209 banned racial preferences. As detailed in the May 22
CyberAlert, the May 16 CBS Evening News aired a one-sided piece on
fewer minorities being admitted to medical school.

Last Thursday, June 12, ABC's
World News Tonight produced an equally unbalanced look at the UCLA law
school. Instead of portraying the drop as proof that many unqualified
minorities were being admitted, ABC argued that if standardized tests
work against minorities then only non-minorities should be admitted
based on them. As with CBS, ABC included a soundbite from Ward
Connerly, but countered it with many more soundbites and arguments
from the pro-double standard side.

Forrest Sawyer: "We're
going to take a closer look tonight at one of the issues Mr. Clinton
will find very much on Californians' minds: affirmative action
programs, which give minorities and women special consideration. For
the first time in 30 years, graduate schools in the California
university system may no longer use race as a factor in deciding
admissions. ABC's Aaron Brown tonight on what that means at one
campus."

Aaron Brown: "Without
affirmative action, Paul Watford acknowledges he never would have been
admitted to UCLA's law school, where he did extremely well, finishing
fourth in his class. That led to a job clerking for Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which led to a prestigious job as a
criminal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office."

Paul Watford: "Those
kinds of opportunities would not have been available to me, even if I
had been a star at a lower ranked law school."

Brown: "John McKinney,
orphaned at five, didn't have the test scores either, but UCLA
admitted black students who showed promise, not just admissions test
performance."

John McKinney: "The LSAT,
it's a standardized test, it's not well-tailored to ferreting out
talent and ability. That test works to the detriment of
African-American and Latino students, especially African-American
students."

Brown: "McKinney, who
graduated last month, is like most black law students in the United
States. A New York University Law Review study shows that of the more
than 3,400 African-Americans accepted to law schools in the United
States in 1991, only 687, 20 percent, would have been admitted based
on test scores and grades alone. But that same study shows that once
admitted, there is no significant difference in how they performed.
Now banned from considering race, UCLA tried giving economic
disadvantage extra weight, but it didn't work. Only 21 black
applicants were accepted, an 80 percent drop."

Michael Rappaport, UCLA Dean
of Admissions: "There is no substitute for consideration of race
if you're trying to expand the size of the minority pool."

Brown: "Without racial
preferences, the nation's largest public university system is going to
produce but a handful of black lawyers from its best schools. UCLA
thinks it will be lucky if 10 blacks enroll in the fall. And because
no one knows exactly why blacks score lower on admissions tests, no
one knows exactly how to fix it. Ward Connerly, who led the movement
to end racial preferences in California, hopes more blacks will now
come to see that only hard work, not preferences, will get them a seat
at one of life's most important tables."

Ward Connerly: "The
numbers are going to go down, and we may end up sacrificing a
generation of preference-beneficiaries in order to start doing it the
right way."

Brown: "And by next year
the numbers will be even more troubling when the ban on racial
preferences, which this year applied to the law school, applies to the
entire undergraduate system, as well. Aaron Brown, ABC News, Los
Angeles."

If there's "no
significant difference" in how those who did and did not meet
test requirements fared, then why not just eliminate test scores for
everyone? I'm waiting to see the first network story, prompted by
Clinton's speech, that examines why blacks score worse and what can be
done about it. But it's a lot harder take on illegitimacy and the NEA
than to just disregard the rules for some in order to achieve an equal
outcome.

4) On Monday, June 16, the
MRC's Free Market Project is releasing a special report detailing how
businessmen are portrayed on prime time television. In short, they are
not depicted very well as they commit more crimes, including murder,
than any other identifiable profession.

Researched and written by Tim
Lamer and Alice Lynn O'Steen, the study titled "Businessmen
Behaving Badly" will be featured in a story in the July 7 edition
of Fortune magazine out this week.

Here's the cover page summary
of the special report's findings:

What kind of messages about
business and the American workplace does prime time television send to
viewers? To find out, the Free Market Project of the Media Research
Center (MRC) analyzed 17 weeks of prime time fare over 26 months -- a
total of 863 sitcoms, dramas, and made-for-TV movies on ABC, CBS, NBC,
and Fox. The MRC found that:

-- TV businessmen commit more
crimes than those in any other occupation. Of the 514 criminals on TV
during the study period, 150 (29.2 percent) were business owners or
executives. Only 50 (9.7 percent) were career criminals. Twenty-one
doctors committed crimes (4.1 percent), followed by 20 government
officials (3.9 percent) and 18 police officers (3.5 percent); lawyers
were the guilty party only five times (one percent).

-- TV businessmen murder more
than others, too. Business characters weren't mere petty criminals. Of
the 214 murderers, 65 (30.4 percent) were business owners or
executives. Career criminals were next with 21 TV murders (9.8
percent); TV doctors, government officials and police officers each
murdered nine times (4.2 percent each).

-- TV businessmen are more
likely to cheat than to contribute to society. Of the 731 business
characters, 210 (28.7 percent) cheated to get ahead. Only 183 (25
percent) were shown meeting the needs of society through their work.

-- TV big businessmen are
more contemptible than TV small businessmen. Of 65 business murderers,
47 (72.3 percent) were big businessmen; 139 of 302 (46 percent) big
businessmen cheated to get ahead, while only 71 of 424 (16.7 percent)
small businessmen cheated to get ahead; 28 (9.3 percent) big business
characters had careers which contributed to society, compared to 155
(36.6 percent) small business characters.

-- TV is unfriendly to the
American workplace in general. More characters used such means as sex,
backstabbing, or knowing the right person to advance their careers
(90) than relied on such means as education or hard work (68).

MRC Web manager Joe Alfonsi
has put the entire report, with examples, graphs and tables, online.
It can be accessed through the MRC's Web page or through the Free
Market Project's page:
http://www.freemarketproject.org

Federal employees and military personnel can donate to the Media Research Center through the Combined Federal Campaign or CFC. To donate to the MRC, use CFC #12489. Visit the CFC website for more information about giving opportunities in your workplace.